Charging your iPod by running

If you've forgotten to charge your iPod and a power plug is nowhere in sight, a simple run could help you get out of the trouble - if new technology being developed is successful.

Every step you take can generate electricity. By packing 20,000 nanowires into three square centimeters, Georgia Tech scientists have developed the world's first gadget powered solely by piezoelectric materials.

A piezoelectric material when pushed or pulled creates a mild electrical charge.

Within three to five years piezoeleectric nanowires, woven into a cotton shirt or placed in a shoe heel, could charge a cell phone or laptop battery after even a short walk.

"This is a key step to designing technology that will be useful in the near future," Discovery News quoted Z.L. Wang, a professor at Georgia Tech and co-author of two new papers in Nature Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, as saying.

Wang's group says piezoelectrics can generate voltages up to 1.26 volts, and can produce even higher voltages.

The team used plentiful and easy-to-manipulate zinc oxide nanowires to come up with their nanogenerator.

An individual zinc oxide nanowire is invisible to the human eye, measuring anywhere between 50 and 200 nanometers across and about five microns in length.

Twenty thousand nanowires, placed side-by-side and end-to-end, cover three square centimeters, with two thin electrodes hanging off either end.

The arrangement maximizes the electricity the piezoelectric nanowires can generate.

The wires work in sync, amplifying the electrical charge to record levels as the single layer is pushed back and forth with the slightest nudge.

Pushing the arranged nanowires harder or faster would enhance the power output up to 30 times without damaging the device.

And if gallium nitride replaced the cheap zinc oxide nanowires the power output could increase almost 10 times.

Piezoelectric-powered devices could also help detect fires and collect weather data in areas that are not within the reach of traditional power grids.

Pencil Printer - Save Paper

We've all seen our fair share of speed boats, as well as submarines. But what if you can come up with a product that combines the two? A submersible boat for use both below and on the water? It sounds like something from a futuristic movie, but in reality, a prototype for this kind of watercraft is being developed and researched.

The company behind the concept is Marion Hyper-Submersible Powerboat Design, and they are very proud of their Hyper-Sub Submersible Powerboat. It is dubbed as: "a revolutionary new vessel with a design flexible enough to open the seas to industry and to individuals in ways never before thought possible." The craft is built with capabilites to not only take on the high seas, but also to transform into a "self-charging, autonomous, one-atmosphere submarine." During testing in 2008, the Hyper-Sub prototype spent two months of testing in the water, and performed well.

In essence, you would be able to use this vessel to cruise on the water, as well as under the water, but looking at the photos, this does not seem like it will be a slow moving craft. It actually looks quite fast - even standing still. The protoype "Fathom", has a seating capacity for 5 people, including the pilot, is powered by twin 440 horsepower inboard Yanmar diesel engines, with a fuel capacity of 262.5 gallons. It comes with all the bells and whistles you can imagine - GPS, chart plotting, radar, forward as well as downward sensing sonar, and of course - autopilot. And that is just on the water surface.


When diving the propulsion system is electric over hydraulic, with twin main hydraulic thrusters capable of a maximum 60 hp. The vessel also boasts bow and stern steering thrusters for underwater maneuverability. It seems the vessel will be available in three different models once in production, with the 'HS-250 Sport' designed with individual owners and charter operators in mind, with strong surface and submerged performance and has a 180 degree view through an all acrylic canopy.


The HS-600 is intended for more of an industrial use - targeted to the salvage or governmental operations. It features an all-aluminum hull.

The HS-1200 is also a very rugged configuration, but offers deeper diving capabilities. It is not clear exactly when these vessels will go into production.

Marion Hyper-Submersible Powerboat Design, LLC is a Florida Limited Liability Company formed in 2005.

Surface Computing

Basic Idea Behind Fax Machines

Most of the early fax machine designs involved a rotating drum. To send a fax, you would attach the piece of paper to the drum, with the print facing outward. The rest of the machine worked something like this:

There was a small photo sensor with a lens and a light.
The photo sensor was attached to an arm and faced the sheet of paper.
The arm could move downward over the sheet of paper from one end to the other as the sheet rotated on the drum.
In other words, it worked something like a lathe.

© Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Fax machines are frequently used to send resumes and other important papers.
The photo sensor was able to focus in and look at a very small spot on the piece of paper -- perhaps an area of 0.01 inches squared (0.25 millimeters squared). That little patch of paper would be either black or white. The drum would rotate so that the photo sensor could examine one line of the sheet of paper and then move down a line. It did this either step-wise or in a very long spiral.

To transmit the information through a phone line, early fax machines used a very simple technique: If the spot of paper that the photo cell was looking at were white, the fax machine would send one tone; if it were black, it would send a different tone (see How Modems Work for details). For example, it might have sent an 800-Hertz tone for white and a 1,300-Hertz tone for black.

At the receiving end, there would be a similar rotating-drum mechanism, and some sort of pen to mark on the paper. When the receiving fax machine heard a 1,300-Hertz tone it would apply the pen to the paper, and when it heard an 800-Hertz tone it would take the pen off the paper.

Inner workings of todays modern technologies

Nanotechnology